Taxi Driver Online

Well this is interesting. Actually, it's not really that interesting, unless you're a pedant like me who disappears down a rabbit hole over, er, not very much at times

Anyway, this is one of those joint operations that target all users rather than just the trade. But obviously quite a high hit rate, if one third of the 'taxis' stopped have been suspended

And spot the deliberate spelling mistake


Five Huddersfield taxis have licences suspended in police operation on main road

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/loc ... d-30976198

Five others had issues that needed resolving

A major police operation has been hailed a success in West Yorkshire.

The Kirklees Rural Neighbourhood Policing Team's large scale operation on Manchester Road in Milnsbridge was deemed a success after different sectors teamed up to take down suspected dangerous motorists on Friday, February 7 . Officers joined forces with colleagues from Kirklees Council’s licensing department, the DVSA and Kirklees Police licensing and Catch and Control officers for the day of action.

Some of the successes include a man arrested for drug driving and as well as officers issuing Traffic Offence Reports to four drivers for offences such as driving without insurance and not having car insurance.

Fifteen taxis were also stopped by licensing officers with ten having issues such a signage to serious vehicle defects. Five of the taxi drivers had their licences to carry passengers suspended.

The Kirklees Rural Neighbourhood Policing Team has said more work is planned after officers and partners conducted a large scale operation on Manchester Road in Milnsbridge.

PC Grifford of the Kirklees Rural NPT, said: “We know from speaking with our residents that road safety remains a real concern of theirs as it does for us.

“The winter weather can obviously introduce extra hazards into our day to day driving and it’s really important we all drive safely and vehicles are kept road worthy.

“This operation saw police and partners take action against a number of drivers whose vehicles were not properly road worthy including several taxi drivers, as well as arrest a male for drug driving.

“More operations of this kind will be carried out and we urge anyone who has concerns about such offending in their community to contact us, as we do use information from residents to help us plan our activity.”

Of course, these online reports often contain so many spelling mistakes etc that they're not worth pointing out but, I mean, the Yorkshire Live site above has just pasted this from the official police news release without even correcting the minor spelling error:


(Even more pedantically, normal press practice is to write numbers of more than ten/10 as a number, so it should be 15 taxis stopped, and five suspended, and another five had issues. Although I can never remember whether it should say '10' in total had issues, or should it be 'ten' in total had issues )

On the other hand, TaxiPoint has got the numbering 'style' right, and has corrected the spelling mistake


But I'm guessing they've just assumed that the signage issue(s) was because it was missing - could be any number of different problems with signage, I'd guess...

https://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/new ... -operation

https://www.taxi-point.co.uk/post/west- ... -operation

Then there's TaxiPoint's description of the exercise thus:


I suspect this means that many TaxiPoint readers would assume Kirklees is largely a rural local authority. But according to Wikipedia:


So although it does have some ruralish areas, its main population centre is Huddersfield, and looking at the maps it looks like there's another signficant conurbation including Dewsbury, Batley and other smaller towns. Dewsbury and Batley together are populated by around 100,000 people.

And according to the official press release: "The Kirklees Rural Neighbourhood Policing Team has said more work is planned after officers and partners conducted a large scale operation on Manchester Road in Milnsbridge."

Which is basically the A62 through Huddersfield.

To be fair to TaxiPoint, I suspect they're alluding to that 'Rural Neighbourhood Policing Team' thing. But I'd guess that in this context, the word 'rural' is quite an elastic thing

And, again, the official police news release doesn't specifically mention 'Huddersfield' as such, so to that extent external readers might be forgiven for thinking that Kirklees is rural in character, despite the operation taking place in Huddersfield.

So the headline used by Yorkshire Live at the top of this thread clearly derives from local knowledge, and the word Huddersfield isn't used in the official West Yorkshire Police press release.

And, of course, nothing in the official release to say that they were actually 'Huddersfield taxis'. They were stopped in 'Manchester Road in Milnsbridge', which is in Huddersfield, but unless Yorkshire Live has some kind of inside knowledge, I'd guess they're just assuming they were 'Huddersfield taxis'

Reason I latched on to all that was maybe because a few days ago I was looking at population figures for Huddersfield etc in relation to the grooming gangs.

Check out the interview below (worth watching in full if anyone's interested), and how it's made to sound like both Huddersfield and Bradford are a lot bigger than Rotherham. Depends how you measure them, but I'd say Rotherham and Huddersfield are in the same ball park (120,000-140,000) while Bradford is on a different scale. Slightly further on Oxford is made to sound a lot bigger than Huddersfield, while it looks like they're both roughly in the same ball park, while Bradford is indeed a lot bigger

https://youtu.be/lBkX-M0SRPc?t=788s

similar in total in town population but with both towns you need to consider the immediate area and the ethnic make up of the population

_________________
lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Kirklees has a total of 2,680 licensed vehicles, and the council stopped 15.

And they view that as a success.

_________________
IDFIMH

Didn't want to be too pedantic yesterday (because I'm never pedantic, obviously ), but presumably it's the plates that were suspended, and not the badges, specifically? A 'taxi driver's licence' is a badge, to my mind at least

Of course, probably of little relevance to the average reader of Huddersfield Examiner, but maybe a trade journal should be a bit more specific?

Anyway, couldn't help thinking of that when reading this on TaxiPoint earlier today. Anyone else see the problem with this article?


Can a taxi or private hire driver hold multiple licences across different authorities?

https://www.taxi-point.co.uk/post/can-a ... uthorities

Yes, a taxi driver can be licensed by multiple councils. There are no legal restrictions on holding more than one licence, provided the driver meets the requirements of each local authority and drives a vehicle licensed in that area too.

Most councils have similar licensing criteria, including Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks, medical assessments, and HMRC tax verification. However, local knowledge tests and, in London, the Safety, Equality and Regulatory Understanding (SERU) assessment must still be passed for each authority where the driver applies.

Drivers may seek multiple licences to increase their work opportunities. Licensing rules can vary, and some authorities may have more favourable conditions regarding costs, waiting times, or operational flexibility. Holding multiple licences allows drivers to operate in different areas, providing access to a wider customer base.

This might be useful for those who work in areas where demand fluctuates. A driver licensed in more than one authority may choose where to work based on demand, events, or peak travel periods, ensuring a more consistent income.

For private hire drivers, multiple licences can also help them legally accept bookings in different council areas. Since private hire journeys must be pre-booked through an operator licensed in the same area as the driver, holding multiple licences potentially gives access to more operators and customers, although cross-border hiring rules allow drivers on many of the larger ride-hailing platforms to work outside of their licensing area.

While holding multiple licences can be beneficial to some, it also comes with added costs and administrative requirements. Each authority charges its own fees, and drivers must keep up with separate renewal dates, compliance checks, and local regulations.

For most drivers one licence is enough, but the flexibility is there as an option should the driver need it.

So the issue with the article above is the obverse of the Huddersfield problem - the article above is presumably about badges, specifically, and not plates.

And, I mean, the difference is important, because the article is no doubt correct about badges, but not about plates, necessarily - for a start, pretty sure Wolverhampton specifically states that you can't plate your vehicle with an authority other than them, so that's 35,000 or so cars for a start that can't be dual-plated.

So in terms of the flexibility etc promoted by TaxiPoint, a huge hurdle is that normally you can't plate the same vehicle in more than one area. And while that doesn't mean you can't badge in more than one area, it does substantially detract from the flexibility argument etc.

And, in any case, even taking TaxiPoint's article at face value, it just seems a tad pointless and overdone, and making a point that has very little relevance to 99.9% of drivers. Kind of reminds me of the likes of that article the other day about the Google delisting - yes, strictly speaking there's a point to be made, but it all looks a tad overblown